Chapter 85: Suspicion
He stood three feet away from me.
He didn’t move forward.
In his eyes, the moon set and crows cried.
At the fourth watch, the brilliant light that was so sincere when he lay beside my pillow had dimmed.
His thick, dense eyelashes were frosted over.
The servants and maids in the room had all withdrawn, leaving only him and me.
I had never felt that this three-foot distance was so long, so long.
“Was the wine from the merchants of Fuliang delicious last night?”
I didn’t realize that my words had uncontrollably carried three parts sarcasm and seven parts doubt.
“It wasn’t as delicious as the wine you brewed.”
He was still lying.
Even now, he was still lying.
The anger in my chest spread out, burning like a fire. I found the camphor wood box from the corner of the room and threw it violently onto the ground. The incense burner, peony painting, and old handkerchief scattered everywhere.
Tears streamed down my face: “If Feng Gao is harmed, do you think we can still be happy? I don’t know why you are helping the Zheng Family, and I don’t know what your goal is. We are already married; even if you don’t think of me, don’t you think of the child in my womb?”
He finally took a step, frantically picking up the old handkerchief and the peony painting, afraid they would be blown away by the wind.
“Sang Yu, you clearly know these are my cherished memories, how could you bear to do this?” His voice was so sad, yet his face was calm.
He sat on the ground, hugging his knees, and looked at me, saying, “Sang Yu, you have never trusted me, have you? If it were Cheng Huaishi, would you be like this?”
I was stunned.
I didn’t know what to say.
His words pushed both him and me into an extremely awkward situation.
“You went to the Zheng Family’s warehouse last night, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” he answered crisply.
“Then why did you lie to me, saying you were drinking with the merchants from Fuliang?”
“I didn’t lie to you. Drinking with the merchants from Fuliang was first, and going to the warehouse was afterward.”
He closed the camphor wood box and rubbed it repeatedly with his palm.
I stood in front of him.
Unable to move.
“You brought the guards to the warehouse, yes or no?”
“Yes.”
Although it was early August and Jiangnan was still sweltering, I felt a chill.
The One-Eyed Dragon had not been wrong.
Nor had I guessed wrong.
Something seemed to be stuck in my throat. After a long pause, I said with difficulty, “Why did you do this?”
He lowered his head and said word by word, “Director Feng is aware of this matter.”
“How could that be? How could he have such leverage in the hands of the Zheng Family…” I stopped myself mid-sentence, realizing it was inappropriate.
Since he was so certain that Feng Gao was aware, there might be another hidden reason for this matter.
I shouldn’t have spoken to him in a questioning tone anymore.
Of all the relationships in the world, none is more difficult than that of husband and wife. Closest, yet most distant. Farthest, yet nearest.
Like a crystal lamp. When it shines, it is magnificent. When it falls to the ground, it is shattered beyond repair.
“Sang Yu, a long time ago, I told you that matters of state and court calculations are not for you to interfere with, what do you know? This matter is very complicated, I don’t understand it, and you don’t understand it either. But Director Feng understands it best. I think he must have devised a plan to deal with it. The reasons he didn’t tell you are: first, Director Feng feared that you would worry during your pregnancy, which would be detrimental to the fetus, so he specifically instructed me not to tell you; second, it is a matter of great importance, and the fewer people who know, the more convincing it will be. Even those two guards were not told.”
He smiled bitterly.
“I thought of many possible reactions from you, but I never expected this. Sang Yu, perhaps I was truly wrong. I overestimated my place in your heart.”
He stood up, like a tree brushed by frost and snow.
Step by step, he moved towards the door.
Xiao Yin stood outside the door, trembling. Seeing him walk out, she quickly said, “Young Master, you and Miss are newly married, don’t quarrel. It’s not worth it. No matter how big the matter, it’s not worth it. Harmony between husband and wife is most important. Even if Miss said something wrong, just let it go like the wind passing by.”
He said softly, “I am not quarreling. Xiao Yin, take good care of Miss. I have stewed bird’s nest soup in the kitchen; it should be ready in about forty-five minutes. Let it cool down and bring it to her. Just add a spoonful of sugar.”
The doctor had said I couldn’t eat anything too sweet during my pregnancy; he remembered it clearly.
He strode into the courtyard.
I rushed out and asked, “Mingxu, where are you going?”
“The fifty thousand bolts of silk from the Jiangnan Weaving Bureau are being loaded onto ships for delivery today. I need to go and see,” he said.
His blue shirt, under the sun, looked like the flowing water of the Grand Canal.
He turned around and added, “It’s true.”
These three words drenched the eaves.
Since I met him, for the first time, I felt that there was smoke and fog separating him and me.
He walked away.
Xiao Yin supported me and helped me sit down in the room.
“Miss, the Young Master has such a good temper. You slapped him so hard, and he didn’t say a harsh word to you. Before leaving, he still remembered to tell me to stew bird’s nest soup for you.”
Yes, he didn’t say a harsh word to me.
I wished he had argued with me righteously.
Anger was on my face.
Disappointment, however, was in my heart.
My suspicion, my slap, the camphor wood box I resolutely threw to the ground, had inflicted deep wounds in his heart, and also deep wounds in our marital relationship.
If it were Cheng Huaishi, would you have done this?
The moment he asked this question, everything changed.
If the spring breeze does not understand my feelings, why does it blow fallen flowers my way?
After several days of unease, I suddenly heard that the theft of the Zheng Family’s warehouse had taken a shocking turn.
Not only did His Majesty not blame the Eastern Depot, but he also wrote a comment on the Zheng Family’s memorial: “Chasing shadows and grasping at phantoms, this must not happen again. How can the word ‘treason’ be spoken lightly?”
The scene of Feng Gao falling into disgrace, which Consort Zheng had been waiting for, did not materialize.
His Majesty did not even order an investigation.
The people of the Zheng Family were utterly bewildered.
His Majesty’s suspicion was always deep. How was it that this time, even though two guards were caught at the scene, His Majesty let it pass so lightly?
No one knew that before this incident, Feng Gao had already secretly reported to His Majesty. He said that the Zheng Family’s ancestral temple was destroyed due to the flooding of the Grand Canal, and its reconstruction should be given extra attention. The Eastern Depot had received intelligence that the Tartars in the north, due to a shortage of grain, had set their sights on this temple repair fund, and precautions must be taken. He had stationed two guards in Yangzhou to secretly monitor the situation, and if anything changed, troops would be dispatched nearby to eliminate the enemy.
His Majesty agreed. He told Feng Gao that such military and state affairs could not be leaked.
Therefore, His Majesty already knew that the guards were at the warehouse.
The Zheng Family, without reporting to the authorities, detained the guards so publicly, causing such a commotion, only made them appear narrow-minded and vindictive.
Feng Gao not only knew about the farce on the night of August 3rd, but he was the mastermind behind it all.
Every move of the chess pieces was within his prediction.
The Zheng Family, thinking they were clever, hired a group of people to impersonate bandits and then had Qin Mingxu call the guards, creating the false impression that the Eastern Depot was colluding with bandits and plotting rebellion.
However, they did not expect that this was a scheme within a scheme.
Qin Mingxu, in his distress, made a decision. He told Feng Gao what the Zheng Family had ordered him to do.
After Feng Gao learned of this, he told him to proceed as instructed, without arousing the Zheng Family’s suspicion.
And so—
The prelude opened, the gongs and drums sounded, the new moon was clear and bright, a good play unfolded.
More seriously, that night, the Tartars did indeed come.
By insisting on holding the guards, the Zheng Family missed a great opportunity to eliminate the enemy.
The group hired by the Zheng Family to impersonate bandits were killed by the Tartars and their bodies were left on Xipo Ridge.
The Tartars stripped them of their clothes and came to rob the warehouse.
The ones who stopped the Tartars were not the Imperial Court soldiers, nor the Zheng Residence house guards, but the actual bandits from Shenju Mountain.
Clouds of suspicion gathered.
The illusion deepened.
The bandits from Shenju Mountain, whom the Zheng Family claimed were colluding with them, not only did not rob the warehouse but, by chance, protected it.
The bandit leader of Shenju Mountain, the One-Eyed Dragon, urgently led over a thousand men and fought a bloody battle with the Tartars on Xipo Ridge.
Brave and resolute, the One-Eyed Dragon shouted, “Kill—”, and the brothers of Shenju Mountain charged forward. Xipo Ridge was filled with dust, and corpses lay on the ground.
The One-Eyed Dragon killed over a hundred Tartars in one battle and captured over a hundred alive.
Among them was Agula, a fierce general in the Tartar army.
The One-Eyed Dragon had achieved an immense merit.
Although the Zheng Family insisted he was a fierce bandit, after Feng Gao ordered the guards to investigate and report to the Imperial Court, presenting the captured prisoners, all the civil and military officials were astonished.
Bandits from the greenwood could have such a spirit of loyalty.
Fighting against the enemy, unafraid of death.
His Majesty issued a decree ordering Feng Gao to personally go to Shenju Mountain to recruit and pacify them.
The night Feng Gao arrived in Yangzhou was the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival full moon.
The large full moon was like a teardrop, desolate and mournful.
